Conquering
MEST

MEST is an acronym Hubbard coined which stands
for matter, energy, space
and time, the component parts of
the physical universe.[1] It is
claimed that by completing Scientology courses,
it is possible to eventually attain "cause over MEST" — the ability
to control matter, energy and spacetime in the physical universe,
free of the encumbrance of the body.[2]

According to the Church:

In Scientology, a state of complete spiritual freedom is
attainable. It has been achieved not on a temporary basis but on a
stable plane of full awareness and ability, unqualified by accident
or deterioration. And it is not limited to a few.

It is called, in Scientology, “Operating Thetan.” The definition
of the state of Operating Thetan is “knowing and willing cause over
life, thought, matter, energy, space and time.”[3]

Dianetics
and Clearing

Hubbard first introduced Dianetics to the general public in
April 1950, in an article published in the Astounding
Science Fictionpulp magazine,[2] and followed
quickly with the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental
Health that same summer.

Dianetics postulates that there is a part of our psyche called
the Reactive
mind, and that most of our mental and physical problems are psychosomatic, thus they can be solved by
eliminating this portion of our minds. This mental state of
self-mastery is called Clear.

In the 1992 Hardcover edition of Dianetics: The Modern
Science of Mental Health, Hubbard writes: "A Clear, for
instance, has complete recall of everything which ever happened to
him, or anything he ever studied. He does mental computations, such
as those in chess, for example, which a normal would do in half an
hour, in ten or fifteen seconds." (pg. 214).

Exteriorization of
energy

Speaking on the subject of "Exteriorization - communication in
Theta and MEST", Hubbard said that an individual thetan (person) has the ability to generate
electricity by putting a "beam" inside a vacuum tube, or a bell jar that has had the air evacuated:

"The truth of the matter is an individual can activate a vacuum
tube. By the way, he can activate a vacuum tube because he isn't
trying to go through the terrific insulative quality of air. I've
forgotten what an inch of air insulates, but it is something
fabulous. An inch of air represents maybe a hundred thousand volts
or something on that order. He would have to be almost as big as a
lightning storm to get across any space of air. But he can do it in
a vacuum tube, and he could do it in a bell jar from which the air
could be exhausted, while he himself was outside the bell jar. He
simply puts a beam inside the bell jar connecting two electrodes
and you would get a registry on a meter inside the bell jar." (3rd
ACC Lecture 35)

Spiritual
immortality

The Church of Scientology describes achieving the state of Operating
Thetan as "complete spiritual freedom from the endless cycle of
birth and death"[4] and
literally promises immortality:

"Some of the miracles of life have been exposed to full view for
the first time ever on the OT levels. Not the least of these
miracles is knowing immortality and freedom from the cycle of birth
and death."[3]

The "immortality" referred to is not immortality of the body,
but of the thetan, and
Scientology does not claim that it causes the thetan's immortality,
but makes a Scientologist aware of that immortality and alleviates
the distress that might otherwise be felt at the prospect of
death:

"The subject of death is never a very serious one to a
Scientologist beyond the fact that he feels kind of sorry for
himself sometimes. ... [The deceased person] was thoughtless enough
to dispose of his body and go out of communication. A person
sometimes feels pretty unhappy about it and thinks it's a
thoughtless thing for a friend to do."[5]

Enhanced health and
lifespan

On pg.121 of the 1992 Hardcover edition of Dianetics: The
Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard writes:

"Clears do not get colds."

It is also hinted that achieving the state of Clear prolongs
lifespan: "What the lifespan of a Clear is cannot be answered now;
ask in a hundred years." (pg.384)

Increasing body weight

Hubbard has claimed on numerous occasions that it is possible
for Scientologists to use mind over matter to increase one's body
weight, although why someone would specifically want to do this is
not explained. In his book Understanding the E-meter, Hubbard wrote that this assertion
can be tested by "mocking up" mental pictures in one's imagination.
"This test has actually been made and an increase of as much as
thirty pounds, actually measured on scales, has been added to and
subtracted from a body by creating 'mental energy.'" (pg.52)

In December 1954, Hubbard declared before a crowd at a
lecture:

"Just mock up something, pull it in, mock it up and pull it in,
mock it up and pull it in. Mock up heavy planets, mock up dense
things and pull them in. You shoot a person's weight up - if he's
working pretty well, and you do this very insistently, and you
insist on density and mass - you can put a person on a set of very
accurate Toledo scales, have him do this process for a few hours,
put him back on the scales and find out his weight has gone up
about thirty pounds." (Introduction to 9TH ACC - Havingness)

In 1957, Hubbard claimed that he was contacted by physicists
from a scientific congress in Boston: "They
wanted to know if I had any proof I could offer that thought
created matter". Hubbard said he gave them all his data about using
Scientology's mental "mock-ups" to increase body weight, and
reported "I got back a highly enthusiastic wire saying that my
data, as sent to them, had been of great assistance." (Ability
Congress, 2nd lecture, December 1957)

Touch
assists

Scientologists (especially Volunteer Ministers) are taught to
administer the "Touch Assist", a procedure designed by Hubbard to
help heal illnesses or injuries. The Scientologist touches the
person's body in a set manner, avoiding sexual areas, and asks the
recipient of the process, who is lying or sitting still, to "Feel
my finger". This is continued until the recipient states that he
feels better about what was bothering him and looks more cheerful
overall. The process is claimed to help restore the spiritual
being's (thetan in Scientology
terminology) ability to communicate with the affected area and
thereby to speed healing and reduce mental trauma.[6]

The touch assist is not to be used to treat headaches,
however:

"Do not do a Touch Assist on a person who has a headache.
Research has shown that headaches are often the result of mental
phenomena that a Touch Assist would be the incorrect handling for."
(The Scientology Handbook, 1994 edition, pg.218)

It is probably the most well-known of all Scientology Assists, which also include the
"Nerve Assist" and the "Unconscious Person Assist".

The Super Power Building in Florida, where the Super Power Rundown,
intended to enhance one's "Theta Perceptics", will be given upon
completion.

Theta
perceptics

Scientology promises the ability to hone one's "theta
perceptics" (senses of the thetan rather than the physical "meat
body") and promises "Communication with the theta universe" with
enhanced 'perceptics' such as:

Hubbard claims that we all have precisely 57 of these
'perceptics'. The Super Power Rundown is intended
to amplify these latent abilities of the thetan by way of becoming
hyper-aware of the physical "meat body". These 'perceptics'
are:

The Church describes the Super Power Rundown as "A super
fantastic, but confidential series of rundowns that can be done on
anybody whether Dn Clear [Dianetics Clear] or not that puts the
person into fantastic shape unleashing Super Power of a thetan.
This means that puts Scientologists into a new realm of ability
enabling them to create a new world." (Dianetics and
Scientology Technical Dictionary, 1982 hardcover edition) The
exact nature of these "Super Powers" have not yet been enumerated,
at least to the public.

Scientology researcher Martin Hunt says that the Super Power
Rundown is "expected to make planetary clearing and the expanding
of all service organizations to the size of old Saint Hill a
reality". This refers to a directive issued by the Church that
their primary goal must be to expand the size of all Scientology
service organizations to the size that Saint Hill was in the 1960s - in other
words, more than 200 staff members in each organization. [3]

The Super Power Building is currently
under construction in Clearwater, Florida for the purpose
of administering this rundown. However, it has been plagued with
construction setbacks since its initial groundbreaking in 1998.

Telepathy and remote
viewing

Two Scientologists, Hal Puthoff and Ingo Swann, researched remote viewing at Stanford
Research Institute for the CIA in the 1970s.[4][5] Most of the SRI
team, including project director Puthoff, and the CIA's star
"psychic spies", Price and Swann, were Scientologists, a fact that
skeptic Martin
Gardner noted disparagingly. Puthoff and Swann were of the
"original" Operating Thetan (OT) VII level (the
Church has since 'changed' OT VII from the level these two
completed), and credited Scientology with their success in the CIA
remote viewing program.[8][9]

From the book What is Scientology?: "Can OTs read
minds? ...to answer the question bluntly - yes, with varying
degrees of ability". (First printing, 1978, pg.215)

Psychokinesis

Psychokinesis, also known as telekinesis,
is the power to remotely move physical objects by power of one's
mind alone. It has long been the position of Scientology that if a
thetan were to recover his
full "native" powers, he would be "at cause over matter, energy,
space, time, form and life."[10]

Time
travel

In the personal successes section of the official Church of
Scientology magazine Advance! (#130, pgs.22-23), there is
an anecdote about an Operating Thetan who claims to have walked
directly into the path of an oncoming truck but saved his own life
by traveling in time
to before he left his home. "I made the decision instantly to turn
back time," says the anonymous Scientologist, who then found
himself "standing by the door I'd left not 10 seconds before -
completely unscathed." The author reports being "very pleased" with
his claimed OT abilities.

Independent creation of
perception

In Scientology 8-8008, Hubbard states that Scientology
training can make one aware of one's ability to turn illusions into
MEST
reality, and that even a preclear is "capable of producing
illusions sufficiently strong to be observable by others". [11]
Hubbard speaks of "rehabilitating" the preclear so that he "begins
to recognize that his viewpoint is expanding and that he is
becoming all-pervasive", and then goes on to say:

"He is above the level of energy, if one can use the term, on
the same wavelength with all other beingness, a condition which
does not permit differentiation. As he rehabilitates his abilities
in independent creation, he can change this wavelength at will, and
can go in or out of agreement with all other points of beingness.
The matter of perceiving, then, becomes a matter entirely of
self-choice". [12]

Cleared
Theta Clear

Beyond even the powerful Operating Thetan levels comes "Cleared
Theta Clear," a godlike state which Hubbard describes this way:

"A thetan who is completely rehabilitated and can do everything
a thetan should do, such as move MEST and control others from a
distance, or create his own universe; a person who is able to
create his own universe or, living in the MEST universe is able to
create illusions perceivable by others at will, to handle MEST
universe objects without mechanical means and to have and feel no
need of bodies or even the MEST universe to keep himself and his
friends interested in existence." [13]